By Denny Chou | Supervisor, International Mktg Resource Centre
When Typhoon Ragasa struck eastern Taiwan in September 2025, Guangfu Township was submerged. Bridges collapsed, railways flooded, and thousands were displaced overnight.
Because of your support through GlobalGiving, immediate relief arrived quickly. In the first month alone, 5,050 hot meals were distributed, 186 households received emergency cash assistance, and volunteers helped clear mud from 58 damaged homes.
As floodwaters receded, rebuilding began. Over the following months, 6 repair teams restored 36 homes, with additional households supported through ongoing repairs, repainting, and replacement of essential appliances. More than 40 elderly and persons with disabilities received temporary shelter and care.
But recovery is more than construction.
Mrs. Su, age 80, has lived in Matai’an for over seventy years. She cares for her adult daughter with a disability. The flood destroyed their ground floor and broke through the back wall of their home. During our visits, we discovered that decades ago, Mrs. Su had trained at The Mustard Seed Mission as a young nursing aide. Now, in her most difficult moment, we stood beside her once again.
At the small thanksgiving gathering marking the start of repairs, she quietly said, “Now I can finally see hope of going home.”
Next door, Ayu and her husband — both in fragile health — are raising three children. Their house was also devastated. With your help, their home is being restored and their family is now connected to longer-term support, allowing their children to return to stability.
In early 2026, we continued walking alongside Sister Wang and her husband. After flood repairs were completed, she was diagnosed with cancer. Facing both disaster loss and medical expenses, she felt overwhelmed. Through consistent social worker support and community activities at our Guangfu center, she gradually regained strength and connection.
Today, recovery in Guangfu has moved into a new phase. With emergency relief and core housing restoration largely completed, we are shifting toward economic recovery and community resilience. Through our vocational empowerment programs — including food production and indigenous weaving — residents are rebuilding income and confidence. Some who once received help are now learning skills that allow them to support others.
For this reason, we are closing this emergency campaign on GlobalGiving. The goals of immediate relief and home restoration have been substantially fulfilled.
What remains is a community that has weathered the storm — and is now rebuilding with renewed dignity and resilience.
Thank you for standing with Guangfu through crisis and into recovery.
By Ariel Wu | International Social Media Manager
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
